Watzke told Ruhr Nachrichten: “A chief of one of the super clubs asked me back in spring if there was a chance [to sign Sancho] but I told him straight away he should forget about it and he never contacted me again.

“He knew I meant what I said.”

Despite consistently rejecting speculation that Sancho will leave Dortmund, Watzke has now conceded that Sancho won’t be at the club forever.

“There aren’t many 19-year-olds with such a potential,” Watzke. “He is also not a player from the region or one who would have any connection to it.

“When you have a player like Jadon Sancho, you must reassess the situation every single year. Everything else would not be honest. If a foreign player is not convinced that the club is right for him at the exact time, it just does not make any sense.”